This time of year feels so strange because it feels like the academic year is over already. Lectures are finished and the only thing left is exams. It does feel weird having exam stress in a foreign city because to be honest I've never stopped feeling like I'm on an extended holiday. Don't get me wrong, I have actually worked hard this year (well, mostly...), but it's so hard to get into the study zone when you can see the Eiffel Tower from your uni library!
The issue with having to do revision in a foreign capital city is that there are so many ways to procrastinate! Back in the UK I would get distracted by the internet like everyone else, but here I wake up and think, 'Oh, today's a lovely day, imagine the view from the Sacré Coeur!' And then I just jump on the métro and spend a couple of hours wandering around Montmartre.
The upside is that I can bribe myself to do revision by promising a trip to a cool gallery or a walk along the Seine with one of my friends who is equally as bored by revision as me. I feel like anyone who studies abroad, or in a cool city in the UK, can relate- even though we've been away for a couple of terms now, there's still a novelty about it and so many places that we want to see that we haven't got to yet.
I ticket one of these places off my mental list today, and that is La Butte aux Cailles. Think beautiful cobbled winding streets with old lamps and flowers peeping over the whitewashed walls. I heard nothing but birdsong for probably the first time since I've been in Paris. Perfect for an evening walk, or you can Vélib it.
I have a confession, and that is that for about 80% of the time I carry a Paris guidebook that my grandma gave me in my bag. Not very Parisian, I know! The thing is that it has so many great recommendations (at one point it was full of strips of paper to mark the places I wanted to go to) and sometimes I'm coming back from somewhere or on a boring errand and just fancy taking off somewhere for an hour or so. That's how I found out about La Butte aux Cailles. It also has some pretty great maps that I use when cycling because my phone always seems to die.
For students in big cities, small cities or just anywhere really, I totally recommend getting a guidebook. Yes, it makes you look stupid, especially when you're looking at a map on a street corner and the real locals (I count myself as a fake local, or shall we say fokal) are giving you disapproving looks as if to say, 'How can that silly tourist get so lost?'. At this point I always want to jump up and down shouting, 'Lies and slander! I live here, kindly inspect my Navigo pass and library card!'. But of course that would be ridiculous and embarrassing, and oh-so-not Parisian.
Anyway, I'm off topic- the message here is basically that guidebooks look lame but can be useful. You don't have to consult it in the middle of the street blocking everyone else (seriously, don't), but I've discovered so many great places thanks to it. Thanks, Grandma!
Exam period is dragging on, but in a week or so I'll be free and enjoying my last weeks in Paris before the summer. (Argh, 'last weeks'! Where has this year gone to?!) But before I start reminiscing on what has been the best year of my life so far (here we go already), I must stop and go to bed because my sleep schedule is ridiculous. It doesn't matter what country you're in, the student life is still the same!
Gros bisous,
K x
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